We knew that Max Hall would struggle moving the Cardinals offense. In fact, we knew going into the season that the Cardinals would not be nearly the offensive juggernaut they were with Kurt Warner at the helm. With those deficits in mind, it takes the rest of the team stepping up their game and playing flawless football to beat a team like the Seattle Seahawks on the road. We didn't see that today and the results speak for themselves.
The Cardinals defense held their own against a not-so-good Seahawks offense, putting up five sacks and holding Seattle to 302 total yards. On several occasions, the defense held Seattle out of the end zone and forced field goals instead of giving up touchdowns. Alan Branch was the star of the defensive team. This was clearly the brightest spot of the day for the Cardinals.
Offensively, when head coach Ken Whisenhunt benched an extremely ineffective Max Hall in favor of the previously benched Derek Anderson, the offense even showed a little life. Anderson was able to put a nice eight-play, 70-yard touchdown drive together and that might have been enough to win the game if only those mistakes hadn't popped up.
Five Cardinals turnovers.
Max Hall floated a ball for an easy interception on his first possession to start things off. A fumble from Tim Hightower deep in the Seattle side of the field ended a 57-yard drive. Andre Roberts botched a punt and made it worse by trying to pick up the ball with one hand. Max Hall fumbled after getting blindsided. Jason Wright kicked (literally kicked) the ball on a kick off return.
Five Cardinals turnovers.
"You can't have five turnovers on the road and think you can win a game," Coach Ken Whisenhunt said in a postgame interview.
Whisenhunt claimed that Hall was benched due to a head injury, but with Anderson warming up before that hit, combined with this team's track record of "spinning" the truth, it is hard to think that wasn't just a face-saving statement -- saving face for both the coach and young quarterback.
That's pretty obvious. Seattle takes over first place in the NFC West, but they hold that position by default with the Rams and 49ers both blowing leads earlier in the day and the very questionable Cardinals coughing up any opportunity they had to win on the road. The NFC West remains very suspect.
For more postgame discussion, visit Revenge of the Birds.
Postgame links:
Is It Time For Another Change At Quarterback? - Revenge Of The Birds
Do you want to see Hall get another chance if he is healthy? Do you want to see Anderson get another shot since he did move the ball better than Hall did (albeit in better weather than what Hall played in)? Or do you want to see John Skelton, or some Free Agent Quarterback and see what one of them can do?
Rapid Reaction: Seahawks 22, Cardinals 10 - NFC West Blog - ESPN
The Cardinals' decision to release Matt Leinart isn't the reason Arizona is struggling on offense. It's not like Leinart would be lighting up defenses. Still, would the offense be any worse with No. 7 under center?
Arizona Cardinals offense sputters in Seattle
With a competent offense, the Cardinals would be atop the standings today. The defense sacked quarterback Matt Hasselbeck five times and held the Seahawks to one touchdown, and that was set up by a muffed kickoff return.